Deadly car bomb shakes Beirut

The powerful car bomb ripped through a crowded southern Beirut neighborhood that is a stronghold of the militant group Hezbollah on Thursday. The massive explosion killed 22 people and wounded more than 300, the deadliest blast in the area in nearly three decades.

The bombing was the second in just more than a month to hit one of the Shiite group's bastions of support, and the deadliest since 1985 when a blast in the area killed 80 people. Many people in Lebanon see the attacks as retaliation for Hezbollah's armed support for President Bashar Assad in neighboring Syria's civil war.

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Flames rise from the site of a car bomb between the Bir el-Abed and Roueiss neighbourhoods, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Lebanese civilians and emergency personnel gather at the site of a car bomb between the Bir el-Abed and Roueiss neighbourhoods, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Lebanese civilians and emergency personnel gather at the site of a car bomb between the Bir el-Abed and Roueiss neighbourhoods, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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A Lebanese emergency worker checks for survivors in a building next to the site of a car bomb between in Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Lebanese firefighters try to extinguish flames at the site of a car bomb in Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Lebanese firefighters try to extinguish flames at the site of a car bomb in Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Lebanese civilians take pictures at the site of a car bomb in Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Lebanese emergency personnel gather at the site of a car bomb in Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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A Lebanese man, injured following a car bomb in Beirut, lays in a bed in Bahman hospital, Aug. 15, 2013.

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A Lebanese civilian walks past burnt cars at the site of a car bomb in Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Lebanese civilians and emergency personnel gather at the site of a car bomb between the Bir el-Abed and Roueiss neighbourhoods, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Lebanese civilians and emergency personnel gather at the site of a car bomb in Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Lebanese civilians and emergency personnel gather at the site of a car bomb in Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Lebanese emergency personnel evacuate the body of a man from the site of a car bomb in Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Lebanese firefighters extinguish flames at the site of a car bomb between in Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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A boy and his mother are seen at the site of a car bomb in Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Lebanese civilians and emergency personnel gather at the site of a car bomb in Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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A Lebanese man, injured following a car bomb, sits in a wheel chair in Bahman hospital in the southern suburb of Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Smoke seen from Mount Lebanon rises from the site of a car bomb explosion in southern Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Lebanese emergency personnel evacuate civilians trapped in a building at the site of a car bomb in Beirut, Aug. 15, 2013.

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Zeinab Muzannar, 13, an injured Lebanese girl who was wounded by a car bomb, sits on her bed at a hospital in Beirut, Aug. 16, 2013.